DEVILS ON THE DOORSTEP
December 18
Wen Jiang's acclaimed WWII tragicomedy takes place in an occupied Chinese village saddled with a mysteriously deposited Japanese soldier—who furiously begs to be executed—and his disloyal Chinese interpreter. Lengthy, rich, and ironic.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
December 18
Another giga-franchise continues. Can this monster be sustained?
photo: Bruce Birmelin
Working girl: James Spader sweeps Gyllenhaal off her feet in Secretary.
Related Content
More About
THE WILD THORNBERRYS
December 20
One of the most original and charming of the post-Ren & Stimpy new wave of cable cartoon shows, this larky odyssey follows a guileless family (with Tim Curry doing a priceless dad) of wildlife filmmakers across the globe. Parents will be thankful.
GANGS OF NEW YORK
December 25
Martin Scorsese's long-awaited dream project about warring gangs in 19th-century Manhattan could either be a world-beater or a folly. The paint-by-numbers revenge plot isn't encouraging, but the visual sweep, textures, momentum, and energy are guaranteed to impress. Leonardo DiCaprio—who?—is the fresh-faced hero, and Daniel Day-Lewis is the mobster in the Dr. Seuss chapeau.
ABOUT SCHMIDT
December 25
Alexander Payne's movie about menopausal angst has little to do with Louis Begley's novel, but it does have Jack Nicholson justifying his reputation as the self-torturing Everyguy protagonist. Hope Davis and Dermot Mulroney co-star.
CHICAGO
December 27
A musical? Now? The Bob Fosse chestnut, itself based upon a 1926 play by Maurine Dallas Watkins (first adapted as 1942's Roxie Hart), finally gets filmed with—singing their own parts!!—Richard Gere, Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lucy Liu, Taye Diggs, and John C. Reilly! Who's going?!
THE HOURS
December 27
Based on Michael Cunningham's novel—a tri-part, generation-spanning riff on Mrs. Dalloway—Stephen Daldry's follow-up to Billy Elliott assembles the starriest cast of the season: Meryl Streep, Ed Harris, Julianne Moore, and, bravely assuming the Virginia Woolf mantle, Nicole Kidman.
LOVE LIZA
December 27
Anchored by an impeccable Philip Seymour Hoffman performance and improbably buoyed by a clutch of Jim O'Rourke tunes, Todd Louiso's film (from a Sundance-winning script by Hoffman's brother Gordy) examines the nuances of a young widower's grief.
THE PIANIST
December 27
Roman Polanski's sober filmization of pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman's experience of the Holocaust from the Warsaw ghetto to the camps, is detailed more in terms of iconic destruction and discombobulating absurdity than in images of wholesale death. The fearful eyes of Adrian Brody star.
CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND
December 27
This is our kind of biopic, based on Chuck Barris's cock-and-bull memoir—a comedy about the man's double life as game-show impresario and CIA operative. Sam Rockwell plays Barris, with support from Julia Roberts, Rutger Hauer (!), Drew Barrymore, and George Clooney, who also directs.
